The Cure for Blindness Exists: If You Can Find Someone Trained to Do It

When Dr Kuburat Adenrele travelled to India for surgical training, she carried with her the hopes of thousands of patients back home who might otherwise go blind. Awarded the Global CARE scholarship in 2025, Dr Adenrele travelled to India to complete two months of intensive cataract surgical training at Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai, one of the world's foremost centers for high-volume, high-quality eye care. 

Cataract is the leading cause of blindness worldwide, and yet, it is almost entirely preventable with surgery. In high-income countries, patients routinely receive this surgery before their vision deteriorates severely. But in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, the reality is starkly different. Patients often wait until a cataract is "mature" (meaning they are already profoundly impaired) because the surgical expertise and equipment are not available locally. 

Based in Nigeria, ophthalmologist Dr Kuburat Adenrele is working to change that. Since completing two months of cataract surgical training in India, she has performed:

• 27 live Small Incision Cataract Surgery (SICS) procedures under supervision

• 21 phacoemulsification surgeries, of which 11 independently 

• 50+ cataract surgeries since returning to Nigeria 

A Surgeon Transformed

Before her training, Dr Adenrele describes going to the operating theatre with palpitations, a quiet anxiety that many surgeons in under-resourced settings might recognise. At Aravind, she mastered the fundamental steps of SICS, learned to manage intraoperative complications at every stage. Here, she learned to tackle techniques she previously found daunting, such as capsulorrhexis, which is a delicate, critical step that unlocks access to phacoemulsification. 

She returned home not only more skilled, but more capable of handling complexity: patients with small pupils requiring iris hooks, those with zonular weakness needing a capsule tension ring, and cases where a combined procedure, such as cataract surgery and a tube implant for uncontrolled glaucoma are required. She has now also been able to perform phaco-tube surgery in her hospital, which would not have been possible before her training.  

What Funding Really Means to a Surgeon 

Since returning home after her training, Dr Adenrele has performed over 50 cataract surgeries with no intraoperative complications. As a result, the majority of her patients regained functional sight, and were able to start working, care for children and live independently again.  

At the same time, she has begun sharing her knowledge with colleagues through formal presentations at clinical meetings, while also supervising and guiding surgeries where her new skills are needed. Her hospital is planning to complete 1,000 free cataract surgeries this year, while Dr Adenrele will be involved in different surgical outreach programs in 2026.

Written by Dr Kuburat Oluwatoyin Adenrele, Global CARE Scholarship 2025